Crowds stuck at the airport
Hundreds of travellers stranded at Ben Gurion Airport
Technical failure in the airport Hold Baggage Screening system (HBS) forces authorities to delay multiple flights, causing huge crowds in the check-in areas; 400 suitcases stuck in Israel to be flown to their destinations another day.
A technical fault in the security inspection system discovered on Wednesday night at Ben Gurion Airport resulted in major delays throughout the night and into Thursday morning, causing hundreds of stuck travellers to pack the terminals and waiting and check-in areas.
Airport authorities issued a statement on Wednesday night saying that additional staff, including maintenance workers, technicians and IT teams, had been sent to fix the fault which had occurred in the Hold Baggage Screening system (HBS).
Suitcases stuck at Ben Gurion Airport (צילום: איתי בלומנטל)
As a result of the disruptions, 400 luggage items that were left in Israel will have to be flown to their destinations on another day.
The airport’s authorities also said that so far, the extra staff members had managed to reduce the size of the crowd of languishing travellers at the check-in areas and that flights scheduled to depart on Wednesday night did so.
Ben Gurion Airport overnight Wednesday
However, by Thursday morning, the electronic schedule boards in the airport was shining bright red, with multiple flights delayed to Katowice, Rome, Milan, Athens, the UK, Bucharest, Budapest, Munich, Moscow and Istanbul.
Hundreds of suitcases to be flown another day.
By 9am, the airport announced that in the past hour ten flights had taken off, while 15 were still delayed.
By 10:30am on Thursday morning, the airport announced that the screening system had been fixed and that flight operations would return to normal.
